Grayscroft is a fourth-generation family coach operator and no stranger to hardship. The best way to survive it, according to owners the Barker family, is by maintaining your sense of humour
Any firm rooted in history is likely to hang on to the old ways, whether by by nostalgia or stubbornness. But sometimes it’s vital to break away to prevent those old ways holding you back – that was the case for Grayscroft.
Father and son team, Managing Director Nigel Barker and Director Ashley Barker, made it their mission to bring Grayscroft Coaches of Mablethorpe into the 21st century. With the help of new Transport Manager Steve Mackay, the trio shook off the dust left by the previous generations to streamline operations and modernise the company’s fleet.
Glory days
Grayscroft’s story began when Charles Barker returned from The Great War and paid £25 for a Ford Model T truck. Using a hand-built wooden coach body, he undertook haulage and passenger work between Louth, Alford and Spilsby under the name C. Barker.
The business as it exists today began in 1924 and grew with service personnel transport to Lincolnshire airfields. It was eventually named Grayscroft, after Charles’ house in Mablethorpe. Excursion work and coach hire picked up after the Second World War to flourish in the 1960s and 70s.
Brothers Bill, Noel and Dick Barker inherited the business from their father Charles in 1961. Content with the heyday already upon them, as time passed the trio were not prepared to face the hassle of change. School contracts, familiar excursions and holiday trips kept the business ticking over, though markets shrank. After ‘Grandad’ Bill passed away in 2018 at the age of 90, Nigel and Ashley recognised that the business would have to change or else risk disappearing entirely.
Meanwhile in Hertfordshire, Nigel’s brother Stephen Barker keeps coaching in the family with Grayscroft Travel. Labelled ‘the clever one’ by Ashley, he does not own vehicles but hires them from Grayscroft Coaches and other local operators. Working for schools and a customer base created over the years, he runs day trips, theatre visits, holidays and First World War battlefield tours, offering work and driving for Ashley when required.
Forcing change at Grayscroft
Nigel, an agricultural engineer by trade, had long approached his father and uncles with youth and big ideas, all to no avail. “Their ambitions and energy had gone,” he explains. “Any suggestion of change and they’d dive for the nearest bucket of sand and stick their heads in it.”
Bill still had enthusiasm, but wisdom meant the trio could see any meaningful change would require more effort than was perhaps worthwhile at their time of life. When eventually the business passed into Nigel’s hands, he was left to organise that change himself. Ironically, the wisdom of the older men might well have made the task easier. “When Noel died, so much information was lost that was never written down. Those first few months were a struggle. I was cast into the office from the workshop and it was alien to me.”
Not a fan of technology, Nigel relies heavily on Ashley to take the business into new directions. Ashley says the sentiment of stubbornness is a trait of Mablethorpe that has been tough to change. “Not moving into the 21st century is a common theme in this town,” he says. “It doesn’t like to change.
“When Grandad worked here, the website was rubbish, we had no card machines, no vehicle trackers, an inaccurate fuel system, and he would have rather turned to witchcraft than social media.
“I would suggest changes, but the answer was always no. The phrase ‘it’s always been done that way’ was always one of his favourite responses.”
But for all the jokes about Bill, Ashley acknowledges that he left the pair with a secure business to work with: “Even when semi-retired with mobility and sight issues in 2014, his knowledge and wisdom was incalculable in what we were trying to achieve. Although he was kept informed on a strictly ‘need to know’ basis, with a mobile phone and his network of spies among Lincolnshire operators this was never the case for long.” The company’s Volvo B7R Sunsundegui Sideral is dedicated to his memory.
The family embraces gallows humour with a ‘dead men’s shoes’ mentality. The unexpected passing of Noel Barker in 2012 threw Nigel into the management directorship role, with the then 21-year-old Ashley joining soon after graduating university with a degree in Sports Coaching.
For the past five years Ashley has had youth on his side to embrace new technologies and business ideas. Grayscroft is not yet where he wants it to be, he hastens to add – but it is where it needs to be. He credits everything to the work he, his father and Steve have done over the past five years. Special mention is also given to Head Mechanic David Birt, who walked through the door aged 16 and is now approaching his 40th birthday.
“David knows every vehicle inside out,” Ashley says. “He’s an invaluable asset to the company and we wouldn’t be able to operate the fleet as efficiently as we do without him.”
As long as you can forget the bad days, remember the good and keep your sense of humour, then you can face whatever happens
Fleet renewal has been key. Volvos make up the backbone and in 2014 the firm bought its first Volvo B12B, a 15-metre Plaxton Panther. This was followed by five more B12Bs, with two B12B executive tour coaches coming later that same year. Despite a decision not to buy any vehicles in 2020 – and a desire to look at other marques – the business nonetheless bought its first B11R Jonckheere in January.
The company has also grown its number of O-Licence discs from 17 to 24 and is running 22 vehicles at time of writing. Only four vehicles remain from the previous fleet, primarily carried over from a crop of dependable Volvo B10Ms. The Yutong brand is making an attractive proposition for future purchases, with Nigel and Ashley admiring the quality of the product and the significant cost savings on initial purchase.
Aside from the premises, nothing much has remained the same for Grayscroft. Operational processes have been updated, alongside drivers. Expectations placed upon the latter have grown in particular. “Things such as professionalism,” Ashley says. “Things that any driver that has a degree of pride in his work would do.”
Image and work
Brand image has also been standardised. Its ageing fleet of multiple colours has been overhauled to a uniform white base with differing designs and Grayscroft vinyl on each vehicle. The fleet revamp has brought additional and better-quality work. It is not just the coaches which have been given love; that includes the day-to-day Scania ‘deckers and the older Volvos, which despite not undertaking the most glamorous of jobs carry the company name with pride.
“We could have the fanciest coaches touring the world, but they are ‘earning their keep‘ elsewhere,” Ashley says. “The bottom line is that the local work is what makes us money, and the ‘deckers on these routes are our advertisement. That’s where the name counts.”
Fighting the other changes, Ashley says the only way to overhaul a business is to deal with problems as they present themselves. Nigel was first to suggest vehicle trackers and now the trio can’t live without them. The FUELlink fuel management system followed, after inaccuracies with the old pump and dial method were found.
And of course, the work carried out had to change. This included updated day excursions and even more attention to detail in the quality of printed posters in the booking office. That’s a seemingly small thing, Ashley says, but makes a big difference on a customer’s first impression.
The combined result of these changes is an operation that has taken what Steve refers to as a ‘backstreet bus garage’ and turned it into a ‘proper coach company’.
Public image
The attitude of Bill, Dick and Noel was an understandable one, as it is still shared by most businesses in Mablethorpe.
“But that attitude has a longstanding detrimental effect,” Ashley says. “People’s memories last a long time and they weren’t even looking at us for certain types of excursions.
“People either didn’t realise the work we did or they would look at other operators in the area. That is down to what we inherited and is a battle we have been fighting ever since.”
The last major change for the company to make is to move premises. The current location is likely to be outgrown if the fleet expansion continues. But location is a sticky subject, with Nigel concerned that the current town centre property is worth a great deal more than purpose-built premises on a nearby industrial estate would ever be.
A lack of investment from the local clientele and a change of attitude towards seaside holiday towns is a limiting factor. Certainly, if the operation moved to a city inland it could charge more for its work. And if the opportunity arose to leave, Ashley is convinced Grayscroft would take it.
But the roots of the company are in Mablethorpe. The business it enjoys is loyal. Mablethorpe’s clientele may be more interested in a day trip to the world’s largest Primark than Birmingham’s Christmas market (the former saw two full coaches) but by trying new things and keeping its finger on the pulse, Ashley says Grayscroft has at last dragged itself out of the hole dug by its forebears.
Being firmly established with no major overheads has put the business in a strong position. And for all the negativity, Nigel, Ashley and Steve all say they can get by so long as they maintain their sense of humour.
“As long as you can forget the bad days, remember the good and keep your sense of humour, then you can face whatever happens,” Nigel says.